"Obviously, the 1998 date was selected because that's when the first reported incidents of abuse occurred and that's when the failure to respond appropriately began," NCAA President Mark Emmert said during a news conference on Monday.¬†"And that was the point of time from which one could make an argument, of course, that the failures began inside the institution, so it seemed to both me and the executive committee that that was the appropriate beginning date."

Emmert's message was clear: The NCAA was choosing to punish a culture of silence, a culture that protected the program above all moral obligations and those responsible for making it that way.

Vacating wins has long been a debate in all sports.¬†And so there is no surprise that the NCAA's ruling on Monday sent the debate over the decision to vacate the wins into a tailspin. But it raised questions about the implications the sanctions will have on past and current players, Paterno's legacy and ultimately Penn State's place among the best football programs.

Some say you can erase the wins, but it is an empty punishment that does nothing to move the university forward and doesn't ultimately change the facts. Others say it is the best way to punish a school: by wiping out a massive chunk of its history.

ESPN analyst and lawyer Jay Bilas told CNN that while the Penn State situation is egregious, the NCAA failed in doling out the penalties to the right people.

He believes the NCAA hammered the institution but failed to really hit those he believes are responsible, including former President Graham Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley, former Interim Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz and Paterno.

‚ÄúAll any of them had to do was communicate (the Sandusky reports) to someone else. And all of them chose to be silent,‚ÄĚ he said. ‚ÄúThat‚Äôs unforgivable and unconscionable. The suggestions or implication that the football culture made them abandon their human decency is kind of offensive. Football didn‚Äôt do that; that was done by four individuals in positions of authority that could not be counted upon to do the right.‚ÄĚ

And the message sent by the NCAA and Penn State based on the consent decree, Bilas believes, is that the culture of football was at fault, and so that institution should be punished. But Bilas believes that message neglects to get at the really heart of the issue.

‚ÄúPutting this off on football just glosses over the fact that individuals were at a fault here, and they are not being held to account,‚ÄĚ he said.

Bilas said he understood the frustration and anger of current and former Penn State players who say that by punishing the institution, the NCAA was punishing them, too.

"Yes, Joe Paterno turned out to be a really bad person. But he won more games than any college coach in history. That‚Äôs a fact," Forbes writer Mike Ozanian wrote. "Barry¬†Bonds¬†holds both the all-time and single season home run records in baseball. That‚Äôs a fact.¬†We might not like either fact. But we should also be treated as mature and adult enough to be able to discern on our own the difference between sports heroes and villains."

For the players on the affected Penn State teams, taking away those 112 games means they have essentially become¬†collateral damage to the institution they so proudly represented on the field, when they probably had no idea what was happening off the field.¬†The 2005 team will argue that its one-loss season and Orange Bowl win cannot be erased.

Others argue that the scars of their efforts still remain even if the win column looks different. Adam Taliaferro, a former player under Paterno, tweeted about a¬†plate in his neck that is a lasting reminder of his spinal cord injury from playing at Penn State.

NCAA says games didn't exist..I got the metal plate in my neck to prove it did..I almost died playing 4 PSU..punishment or healing?!? #WeAre

For them, the emotions and the sacrifices that they left on the field have been tainted. Former Penn State player Derek Moye says the vacating of victories ordered by the NCAA can't erase his memories of what he has been a part of.

They can take away whatever games they want to, I know I was apart of win 400 409 and all the other games WE won while at PSU

Almost all of the former players note that their frustrations pale in comparison to those of the victims. But still, this sanction in particular stings deep for them. They believe they are paying the price for actions they did not commit.

Bilas said that is often the case when it comes to NCAA sanctions.

‚ÄúThe NCAA winds up more often than not sanctioning institutions rather than individuals,‚ÄĚ said. ‚ÄúThey‚Äôve always punished into the future and the ones that are left behind. This is business as usual. It is always the current players that take the hit, the current coach that takes the hit.‚ÄĚ

Bilas had hoped that sanctions would include show-cause orders for the top officials as a way to force Penn State to disassociate themselves with those involved at the highest levels.

A show-cause penalty has been used by the NCAA to punish coaches and officials before. It essentially puts penalties on them not just at their current jobs but also should they choose go elsewhere, often leaving them without a job at the college level.

In some ways, vacating the wins can be seen as the biggest slap in the face possible.¬†It may in part be the least overall harmful sanction, but it may have the longest impact. In some ways, it forever alters the history books on Penn State and Paterno's legacy as a whole.

‚ÄúI think it's pretty clear that this was about dismantling a football program that the NCAA executive committee and board felt had gotten too big,‚ÄĚ Bilas said. ‚ÄúThat conclusion is inescapable. They wouldn‚Äôt have involved itself but for the fact that football was omnipotent and revered to that level.‚ÄĚ

Paterno, as the most visible and symbolic figure of the institution, has perhaps been hit the hardest. On top of Penn State removing the statue of the man who defined the program for years, the move of vacating wins dethrones the Happy Valley hero from the title he clung to most: the winningest coach in college football. He achieved it during his last game, and many close to him said that goal was what he was holding on to as he coached into his later years.

Vacating the wins may be the least overall harmful sanction, but it may have the longest impact. In some ways, it forever alters the history books on Penn State and Paterno's legacy as a whole.

The NCAA's move sent Paterno from the top of the heap with the most wins down to 12th all-time and fifth for Division I schools.

Paterno's family issued a statement saying that they feel the coach has unfairly been defamed and now shamed without having the chance to defend himself.

"The release of the Freeh report has triggered an avalanche of vitriol, condemnation and posthumous punishment on Joe Paterno. The NCAA has now become the latest party to accept the report as the final word on the Sandusky scandal," the family said in a statement. "The sanctions announced by the NCAA today defame the legacy and contributions of a great coach and educator without any input from our family or those who knew him best."

Now, his friend Bobby Bowden sits at the top of the heap as the winningest coach.

And Bowden knows a thing or two about being in the midst of NCAA troubles. He had 12 wins vacated by the NCAA for the time he was coach at Florida State University relating to ineligible players and an academic scandal. With those wins, he would have been sitting atop Paterno for the most wins even before the NCAA sanctions.

Bowden said he remembers how upset he was having those wins taken away, but he acknowledges that a much more horrible situation occurred at Penn State than just academics or player issues.

"I'm not rejoicing," Bowden told CNN.

The coach said he was truly surprised at the extent of the measures taken by the NCAA.

"I guess they felt that with the extent of what happened with Sandusky and the way it was handled," those measures were¬†appropriate, he said. "I didn't expect them to take that many away."

The vacating of all of those wins does not just have an effect on what we will say about Paterno. It also largely shakes the standing and legacy of Penn State in the history books, which now is no longer one of the Top 10 winningest football programs of all time.

Penn State, however, unlike Paterno, has had the chance to give input and respond to the Freeh report. And the school is making a statement by saying it will not fight the view the NCAA has taken about previous inaction.

And ultimately, it has agreed to not challenge the¬†NCAA's harsh perception of the past but also¬†self-sanction the school's future and ultimately rewrite Paterno's entire legacy.

soundoff(1,035 Responses)

Can we punish sandusky's wife for being so ignorant and na√Įve to believe her husband isn't guilty of any wrong-doing? Focus more on him and his idiot family and less on a man who can no longer defend himself and his reputation.

Several here are saying that the players earned the wins. In some sense, yes. But if Sandusky had been booted in '98, the PSU defensive play set and game decisions would have been different, perhaps other coaches would have left, perhaps top recruits from then on would have played elsewhere. Each victory was scarred. The wins are regrettably void. Put the rings in your dresser drawers and mentor a child.

Let me ask this. Say Joe Paterno was still coach and it was before scandal. Now Joe wants to meet the university president. Does he call and make an appointment or walk in his office like Joe owns the place. Let's reverse the roles, say the president of Penn State wants to see Joe? Does he set an appointment or walk in? Now everyone knows Joe is going to just walk in, and the president of Penn State is gonna set the appointment. And that folks is the ENTIRE problem at Penn State. Joe Paterno basically owned the damn place, made the rules, made decisions he had no right in the world to make, had power he had no right to weld. All for a stupid f'n game played by about 40 kids, about ten times a year. The CULTURE OF PENN STATE IS GUILTY OF THESE CRIMES! That is why Penn State needs to be punished. This is why every student athlete needs to be punished. Reading what has been written, Penn State Students, Alumni, and supports still are living in the Penn State athletics is the most powerful thing culture. Here is the punishment I suggest. I would ask the Pennsylvania state government to codify this. No Football for an entire generation (25 years), no sports programs of any kind for ten years, and no athletlic scholarships til the year 2100. Penn State can go and be a place of learning, nothing more.

well only Joepa knows the truth of what he knew & he took that to the grave, so since the NCAA is so busy giving out punishment maybe they can take all the money JoePa gave to PSU over his life and give that to the people that got abused

If only one person that knew of Sandusky's going on's had picked up the telephone and called the police, this would not be
happening to Penn St. University today. Such a shame. You can rest assured there a a lot more out there that knew while the man still worked there and will never own up to it.

How do you take away wins? What a pile of crap this is. Those wins had nothing to do with the scandal and taking them away will do nothing to help those poor kids or bring any justice to the situation. The two had nothing to do with each other, and the NCAA has done itself and all sports a great disservice by pretending that they did. We can all debate what Joe Pa should or should not have done, but that has nothing to do with his greatness as a coach or all the good things he did for Penn State. They want to punish someone who one report said could have done more and who, being dead, cannot defend himself against the allegations ( are you listening, Penn State? ALLEGATIONS). There is plenty of shame to go around, but now the NCAA can claim its share.

Yes, I totally agree . . . Joe Paterno was only one of the wheels that ran the machine called Penn State. Alot of people are running scared, so what better guy to take the hit than a dead one. The NCAA HAS to make an example out of someone considering the angry climate that surrounds this whole pathetic ordeal. And they've chosen Joe . . . sometimes I think the NCAA did that only to prove their own relevance . . . it's their fifteen minutes of fame so-to-speak.

Honest to God, as a youngster I used to like PSU football, the unis, the style......but I ALWAYS found it tough to root for them because I couldn't stand JoePa. He seemed so phony to me, even as a 10 yr. old I could sense something...... The school will eventually recover but thank God we ALL now know the truth about this MONSTER!

Penn State, former players, and alumni; it‚Äôs called consequence. You‚Äôre beloved leaders didn‚Äôt do what moral and justified leaders do. It‚Äôs not about taking away a game you won, it‚Äôs about not morally deserving to be there, much less win, in the first place.

What no one seems to get is this does nothing, but hurt more people. The NCAA is not being fair here.

I don't have a problem with his wins being vacated. Don't have a problem with the school losing wins. Like many people say you can't take away the memories. I don't even have a problem with the 60 million penalty to go towards the victims.

I have a problem with scholarships being taken away, because that hurts students who have absolutely nothing to do with this. Football programs at schools fund other less profitable athletics, which means that other athletes and coaches who had nothing to do with this are being punished. The people who the money is being taken from are innocent. The ones guilty have gotten their pay and will walk away scot free short of any legal charges. Those are the people that need to be shown a lesson. This is like a cop writing a ticket for five miles over while everyone else is going 10-20 miles over. And the school doesn't care because they for the most part are dumping the blame on Joe Pa. Sad. This was an isolated event to which few people had access to the information. The school, the NCAA, need to punish those people directly. And not people outside of that group.

Your cop analogy speaks to discretion. Joe Pa had the discretionary authority to protect the young men that Sandusky was abusing and he failed. As a leader, Joe had great and vast powers and he failed to exercise that same discretionary authority when it was needed most - to protect kids. This happened under his watch and unfortunately, this is the price leaders pay for everyone that held Joe Pa as a demagogue of PSU.

The leadership at Penn State failed the university, the students and the athletes. Because we trust and empower our leaders like Joe Paterno with vast and powerful discretionary authority, the result is that the PSU community is forced to pay the price for entrusting him with our sons, daughters and representing the great state of Pennsylvania. Accountability starts with our leaders, unfortunately many of the people who are speaking out against the sanctions either fail to recognize or do not want to acknowledge that accountability. For years, Joe Pa was beyond reproach. Unfortunately for his legacy, his family and those who played for him, he made an egregious leadership error that many will continue to pay the price for a long time - especially the young men that Joe failed to protect.

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